Discussion on juvenile sentencing standards

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On March 10, 2024, three minors committed a crime together and killed Xiaoguang (pseudonym), who was 13 years old at the time. The three assailants were similar in age to the victim Xiaoguang and were classmates in junior high school, and one of them was the victim's deskmate. According to information provided by the victim's aunt, the three boys had been bullying the victim at school for a long time.

This incident caused a huge discussion on the Internet about whether these minors should be sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or fixed-term imprisonment. Under current law， there is no way they could accept the death penalty.

wiki About this case

PS：Change the wording: man → boy

Last edited by belijojo on 19 Mar 2024, 11:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not sure it's unreasonable to treat minors with more leniency than adults.

I'm pretty strongly against the death penalty in all situations.

If we're talking about young teens I'm not sure men is the most accurate word to use when describing them. They're boys. That doesn't mean their acts should go unpunished, but the goal should be rehabilitating them if possible, not just seeking to make them suffer and disposing of them.

^That makes sense. Can you give me some example of how other countries rehabilitate criminals?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_Norway

Norway is supposed to be a good example.

nice

There was a serious crime committed by my cousin’s stepson which resulted in the death of one of his half siblings. There was talk about trying the boy as an adult even though he was 13 or 14 which could’ve led to a life sentence. Instead, he was tried as a kid and was sent to a juvenile detention center until he reached the age of 21. At the time, I was very worried that he’d be tried as an adult. As devastating as the situation was, I didn’t think it was right. This happened many years ago. He’s been out for years and hasn’t caused any harm.

In any event, I am also strongly against the death penalty. I feel like there needs to be prison reform in many countries, including my own - the US.

I'm more in favor of the rights of the victims than I am of the rights of the victimizers. That's ALL I'm going to say about this.

Quite often, perhaps especially when we’re talking about kids, victimizers are victims too, so it’s not an either/or thing. There are usually reasons why kids behave the way they do. I’m not justifying horrific behavior, but punishing it to the max isn’t really going to help their victims any most of the time. Rehabilitation IS possible in many cases.

I'm just speaking from personal experience (maybe bias too? I dunno.) My Nana who I love very much used to work as a cafeteria lady at the juvenile detention center and she was actually brutally attacked by some boys who tried to steal her keys and escape (only from what I remember these idiots grabbed the wrong keys, the keys she had were for the freezer, so thet didn't get very far in their escape).

They did some serious injuries to her and she never truly recovered from it.

I understand that some victimizers were victims themselves, but I also believe that some kids aren't as innocent as society wants to believe they all are.

Yeah I know... so much for me not saying anything else on the subject.

If society believed they were innocent, they wouldn’t be sent away to juvenile detention centers. Sometimes rehabilitation takes time. It sounds like the center your nana worked at wasn’t doing a very good job as far as security is concerned. Just because people believe in rehabilitation doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t exercise appropriate care and caution when it comes to safety.

I dunno what to think... I agree that our legal system is deeply flawed. But then I also think of the people in my family who were victims of violent crime like my mom, her sister, and my nana. If you put yourself in my shoes it might be easier to understand why it's impossible to have mercy for people who have hurt and traumatized the people I love, even when it's minors as was my Nana's case.

Frankly I don't want to see people like that "rehabilitated", I want to see them held accountable for what they've done.

Is that wrong of me? Maybe... but it's a perfectly natural human response as far as I'm concerned.

^ Exerting punishment on them will not make your loved ones recover as if they had not been hurt.
After making sure they're better, the extra time In prison is meaningless and no one benefits from it.
What you want is to deter people from doing harm, but there are better ways.

Last edited by belijojo on 20 Mar 2024, 11:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

People in my family and I HAVE been victims of violent crimes. I don’t think rehabilitation is possible for everyone - sex offenders, especially involving child victims, for example, but evidence does demonstrate that many people CAN be rehabilitated. It seems to depend on the individual and the nature of the rehabilitation program.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 20 Mar 2024, 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

I believe some people in this world are ireedemable.

I actually agree. Each case needs to be judged on an individual basis.

Do you hold the theory of human nature?